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Michael Altman
Michael Altman 'is the central figure of the Church of Unitology, credited as the man who first revealed the proof of alien life to mankind: the Black Marker.Unitology Article, ''Dead Space (2008) He is believed by Unitologists to have been assassinated by the Earth Government to suppress the knowledge of the Marker. The Government, however, has preferred the story that Altman's death was accidentalDeakin Abbott, Dead Space (Comics) (2008) and he was no more than a hoaxer.Unitology Article, Dead Space (2008) Much of the details about the scientist behind the martyr are shrouded by Unitology myth. The real Altman was a scientist: a 23rd Century geophysicist who did make history when he publicly revealed footage of the Black Marker at a press conference in the North American Sector.Dead Space: Martyr These events have always been twisted and blown out of proportion in Unitologist accounts as the Church portrays this as Altman professing divine knowledge to millions and establishing a global religious movement.Unitology Exposed, Dead Space (2008) Biography Little is known about Altman's early life. At some point he became an anthropologist (geophysicist in the book) and soon moved to the Chicxulub crater with his girlfriend Ada. He also had a varied ancestry, with his own mother being a Native American although he didn't know from which tribe. Chicxulub research team During his normal work at the the Chicxulub crater, Altman had begun to suffer from regular nightmares and headaches for weeks before his initial finding. During a routine scan, he detected a strange gravitational anomaly in the heart of the crater that soon began to emit a powerful signal. Attempting to share this knowledge with the public, he was eventually contacted by an individual from DredgerCorp, a covert government company who often moved into areas illegally to continue business. After the contact mysteriously died, Altman later managed to find video evidence of a DredgerCorp attempt to dive down to the signal and find out what it was. Both the men involved in the dive were killed after one of them went insane. Intrigued, Altman tried to blow the whistle on the failed attempt to find the source of the signal, against the will of Ada. He was promptly taken into custody by government officials working for DredgerCorp. Impressed with his skills in finding out about their operation, Altman was given a choice to help them find the signal revealed to be coming from an artifact, or be killed to remain silent. He agreed with staying alive. Altman was brought aboard a covert floating science station along with work colleagues and Ada. He soon befriended a submarine pilot named Hendricks and was ordered to make a dive to retrieve the artifact. Diving into the depths with Hendricks, the two piloted the sub down. Beginning to suffer from the same madness as the previous attempt crew, Hendricks attacked him and Altman was forced to subdue him. Strangely, Altman was unaffected at all by the artifact except for a hallucination of Ada's mother who finally told him what the artifact truly was: the Black Marker. After repeated dives, the Marker was eventually brought onboard the station alongside a sample of strange, fleshy tissue Altman found in the water. Because of his ability to be in close proximity to the Marker without the adverse side affects of his colleagues, those influenced by the Marker who had come to worship it as a deity began to hail Altman as an unwilling prophet. Despite this attention, Altman noticed how the station's crew had begun to split into believers and non-believers and that violence and murders had begun to escalate. Realizing the power of the Marker and with the belief that the government was planning on utilizing it as a dangerous and deadly weapon, Altman escaped from the ocean facility and made an announcement about the Marker in Washington D.C. He was soon recaptured and watched as a sudden Necromorph infection brought about by an insane scientist injecting himself with the tissue sample destroyed the facility and killed all the staff. Altman managed to escape with the help of work colleagues, all of who were eventually killed by the creatures. Hoping to find Ada who had disappeared and get away, Altman returned to the shores near Chicxulub but realised how he could stop the Marker. Fighting his way back inside the facility, he managed to replicate the Marker's genetic code and signal in an attempt to calm it. It eventually did so and Altman destroyed the entire facility as a measure to make sure the Marker would not be found again. But Markoff and Stevens, two military men who were overseeing the project, captured Altman and planned to kill him, using his Martyrdom to enhance the name of the Church of Unitology, a faith that Altman unwittingly 'founded' and caused both Markoff and Stevens to believe. The men copied the code Altman had used to calm the Marker from his research and planned to use it as a blueprint to create a second Marker. Altman was put into a sealed area with only a spoon for a weapon against a Necromorph made of three corpses, including Krax's, one of Markoff's soldiers. The Necromorph that killed Altman very closely matched the description of a Brute. Dead Space: Martyr Martyrdom and Legacy After Altman's death, the Government began to twist the truth about his fate to the version that the universe would come to know. Altman was apparently assassinated by the Earth Government after spreading the word of the Black Marker and of Unitology whilst working on the research team studying it. Since then, Unitologists have worshiped him as a martyr figure for their faith and interpreted the Black Marker to be a sign from God. Many statues of Altman are also seen in Dead Space 2, in the Church of Unitology. Trivia *The Hebrew meaning of the name Michael is "Who is like God?". In Old German, Altman means "old man" or "wise man". *Michael Altman was the main protagonist in Dead Space: Martyr.[http://kotaku.com/5516189/another-dead-space-prequel-only-this-one-you-read '''Kotaku: Another Dead Space Prequel, Only This One You Read] *B.K. Evenson, author of Dead Space: Martyr, wrote a book in the 90's titled "Altmann's Tongue". Though the spelling is different, the creators of Dead Space may have chosen the name "Altman" because they are fans of Evenson's work, as evidenced by the fact that they chose him to write Dead Space: Martyr. *In the Dead Space game log "Unitology Article," (Chapter 10) Michael Altman is said to have been an anthropologist, as opposed to a geophysicist as in the book Dead Space: Martyr and Dead Space 2. Gallery File:Mickey Alty.jpg|A Statue of Michael Altman in the Church of Unitology File:Mickey Alty2.jpg|And another one. File:Altman2.jpg File:Altman_Be_Praised.jpg|And one more. Sources Altman, Michael